The Mockingbird Conference

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     The past week was chock full of interesting learning and inspirational moments, culminating in a Fall Break of relaxing and chilling, my favorite pastime. Wednesday evening I accompanied my father-in-law to a worship service at the Christ At The Checkpoint event in Midwest City, where we heard Grace speak of her experiences and appeal for prayers as she and her husband deal with separation due to Visa issues. Dr. Munther had prepared us by leading some songs in Arabic, which went well in my humble opinion, and set us up nicely to hear from Grace, and then from the featured speaker, Archbishop Elias Chacour. Dr. Chacour also had several stories to share, stories of the struggles faced daily by Palestinian Christians in the face of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict. That whole situation bears its own unpacking, and so it will be.

     The weekend before, I had attended the Mockingbird Conference held at All Souls Episcopal Church in Oklahoma City. It was a refreshing, spiritually and intellectually challenging time of digging into grace in the face of all the distractions offered by today's society. Many thanks to Scott Johnson, one of the co-owners of Commonplace Bookstore in OKC, for spearheading the coordination of this event. My favorite speaker of the event was Dr. Steven Paulson, who bookended the conference with a great unpacking of Grace concepts. Not to embellish at this time, the new life we have in Christ changes the contextual paradigm of death for the Christian; in short, the life we now live is the life eternal and death is but a passing, not an end. That simple shift is rife with implications.

     'Nuff of that. For now, hoping the Hoosiers can sustain their energy through the rest of the game against Penn State.

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